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At last Estein saw he was observed, and passing his hand across his brow as if to sweep away his thoughts, asked wearily, "Where do we go now, Helgi?" "Your spell needs a violent remedy, and I have that on my mind that may cure it. What say you to letting Liot Skulison know that he did not slay us all?
In an instant a mantle was twisted round Liot's mouth, his hands and feet were bound, and ere he was thoroughly awake, he was mounted on the shoulders of his foes, forming one of a singular procession that hurried through the hall of Liot Skulison. Grim, who walked first, had almost reached the door, when from the blackest of the shadows a man stepped suddenly across his path.
"He and his ill-looking crew make a mighty noise. Has any man heard of Liot Skulison or Osmund Hooknose before?" "Ay," answered Ulf. "They call them the bairn-slayers, because they show no mercy even to children." "They will meet with other than bairns to-day," said Helgi. Estein and Thorkel had been employed in binding the two vessels together with grapnels.
As the afternoon wore on they turned landwards again, and towards evening found themselves coasting a mountainous island lying to the south of Hrossey. "What do men call this?" asked Helgi. "They call it Haey, the high island, and it is on a bay to the south of it that Liot Skulison dwells," answered Grim, their pilot for the time.
"What counsel hold you with the seamews? Sometimes I see a smile, and sometimes I hear a sigh; and then, again, there is a look of the eye as if Liot Skulison were standing before you." "I was filling twenty long ships with enough stout lads to man them, and sailing the western main again," replied Estein. "And whither were you sailing?" asked Helgi. "Westward first," said Estein.
If seventy brave men cannot clear a hall of two hundred drinkers, what virtue lies in stout hearts and sharp swords? We will enter the hall, you from one end and I from the other, and I think the men of Liot Skulison will not have to complain of too peaceful an evening." "We must catch them, then, while they are feasting.
"Bring the spades!" cried Ketill "a fitting enough epitaph for Liot Skulison." His conqueror was already in Helgi's arms. "I thought I should have had to avenge you, Estein. My heart is light again." "Odin has answered me, Helgi." "And the spell is broken?" "No; that spell, I fear, will break only with my death-wound." Helgi laughed out of pure light-heartedness.
His friend tried to force a laugh, but it came hard. "Nay, rather seek a sword for Liot Skulison, for I see we are nearing the holm." "I had forgotten Liot," said Estein. "We will loose his bonds, and let him choose his weapons." He found Liot sitting in the waist bound hand and foot. His eye was as firm as if he had been in his own hall, and he looked up indifferently as Estein approached.
On a spit of sandy beach lay three warships, and on the slope of the hill to the left stood a small township of low buildings, clustering round the higher drinking-hall of Liot Skulison. In dead silence they hugged the shore as closely as their pilot dared. "We are as close inshore as we can win," he said at length in a low voice.
I will slay Liot Skulison for you; in fair fight if you will, though I think not he deserves such a chance. Was it a fair fight when he fell on our two ships with his ten?" "I would slay him, Helgi, like a dog, were it not that something within me bids me ask in this wise the wishes of Odin." "'Tis the voice of yon witch." "She is no witch, Helgi, only the fairest girl in all the North.
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